Yomiuri: Unknown how much nuclear fuel has melted through Fukushima reactors and ‘dispersed’ — Questionable to assess that as nearly a ‘cold shutdown’

Nov. 19 — “The status of the molten nuclear fuel is unclear,” reports the Daily Yomiuri, “It is not known how the fuel, believed to have partially melted through pressure vessels of the reactors and into containment vessels, has dispersed and how much lies in water.”

“It is questionable to assess the situation as nearly a cold shutdown. Usually, to achieve a cold shutdown, all fuel rods should be cooled under water, and nuclear fuel, pressure and containment vessels should be intact and in good condition,” says Yomiuri.

“The situation at the nuclear plant does not meet this definition. Is it appropriate for the government and TEPCO to call the current status nearly a cold shutdown?”

23 comments to Yomiuri: Unknown how much nuclear fuel has melted through Fukushima reactors and ‘dispersed’ — Questionable to assess that as nearly a ‘cold shutdown’

It is a cold shutdown as it will be a cold day in hell when TEPCO gets its shit together. How can it not be obvious that cold shutdown at Fuke is impossible? That train has left the station and I urge the residents of Honshu to follow post haste.

They may have a cold shutdown on reactors as to what is left of some, reason some say cold shutdown, but there is no cold shutdown for what has escaping into the abyss of the earth !

Early on we talked about the possibilities of a volcanic like reaction as it deepened it’s decent and how it may turn out to be a good thing covering the area in lava and ash, then stop as it deepened into the levels of earth’s crust and beyond into molted lava ! THEN WHAT ???

Ill bet once it clears the water we will be OK. I think its the groundwater that’s the dangerous crossing… like an underground pressure cooker – cavern. I think she could blow in some way…. that corium gets and is super-hot, right? That’s a lot of superheated water changing to gas underfoot if you ask me!

What if it just super-boils and steams off for the next ten thousand years?

If it gets into the molten core and blows us to kingdom come, then we deserved it for being so stupid really.

Architect of Reactor 3 warns of massive hydrovolcanic explosion
Posted by Mochizuki on November 19th, 2011

“Architect of Fukushima Daiichi Reactor 3, Uehara Haruo, the former president of Saga University had an interview on 11/17/2011.

In this interview, he admitted Tepco’s explanation does not make sense, and that the China syndrome is inevitable.

He stated that considering 8 months have passed since 311 without any improvement, it is inevitable that melted fuel went out of the container vessel and sank underground, which is called China syndrome.

Neptunium (play /nɛpˈtjuːniəm/ nep-tew-nee-əm) is a chemical element with the symbol Np and atomic number 93. A radioactive metal, neptunium is the first transuranic element and belongs to the actinide series. Its most stable isotope,

237Np, is a by-product of nuclear reactors and plutonium production and it can be used as a component in neutron detection equipment. Neptunium is also found in trace amounts in uranium ores due to transmutation reactions.[3]

19 neptunium radioisotopes have been characterized, with the most stable being 237Np with a half-life of 2.14 million years, 236Np with a half-life of 154,000 years, and 235Np with a half-life of 396.1 days.

I think many of us predicted this about 6 months ago where TEPCO would announce a cold shutdown in 2012, with the hot corium far away from any temperature measuring device. It’s like measuring the temperature of the water in your kettle by checking a thermometer 10 metres away from it, and declaring the water in the kettle is cold.

Why isn’t the media asking the obvious question: where’s the corium, and how can you achieve a cold shutdown if the corium is migrating away from each reactor?

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